Yahoo! buys! ad! exchange!

Yahoo! has bought Right Media - the online ad exchange it bought a stake in last October.

Yahoo! is paying $680m for the remaining 80 per cent of Right Media - made up of half shares and half cash.

Terry Semel, CEO of Yahoo!, said in his "blog": "Right Media connects the various online ad players (advertisers, publishers, ad networks) in an open and efficient way. Its marketplace provides a world where non-guaranteed inventory is bought and sold without barriers - an entirely free flow of information." Semel said the deal would help improve the company's Panama ad network.

Right Media CEO Michael Walrath said in his "blog": "It's important to reiterate publicly that the acquisition will in no way afford Yahoo! any unfair advantage in the Exchange. A level playing field is one of the foundations of the Exchange and its success - it remains level. The fact that the Right Media Exchange will operate as an independent division of Yahoo! ensures this."

Right Media runs an exchange for ad agencies to buy advertising inventory. It claims to offer a more transparent way for advertisers and publishers to deal with their ad inventory - because inventory is auctioned you can see who is paying for what. In February the company claimed to have traded 566 billion page impressions in the previous six months.